The roles were reversed at the Brisbane Lions’ training session on Monday morning, with Queensland AFL.com.au journalist Michael Whiting taking centre stage.

Whiting, who predominantly writes on the Lions and Gold Coast Suns’ news each week, is also a professional running coach.

In his early 20s, he raced in 1500 metre events throughout Queensland circuit and in later years extended to the longer form of half marathons. He now coaches ten runners at the University of Queensland.

He has covered the Lions for the best part of seven years but today was the first time he has actively participated in a session.

“It’s a massive part of my life and … it was great to mix my job with my passion,” Whiting told lions.com.au.

“David Noble [GM Football] and the coaching staff allowed me to come along which was really exciting and all the players were really welcoming.

“It was a great opportunity to see what they go through in a pre-season session. I’ve always watched from the sidelines but to jump in and have a go was a real eye-opener.”

The session started with four by three minutes efforts with two minutes of recovery in between.

While taking part himself, Whiting was keen to observe the players around him. 

“The boys run those quite hard. They attack them pretty early,” he said.

The team then went off to do drills and skills for the next part of the session before finishing with six by 300-metre sprints.

“It was hard work,” Whiting said.

“I think the thing I got out of it was all the chat between the reps.

“Who’s chatting? Who’s struggling? How hard the guys really do it and how willing they are to dig in again.”

Taking part in the two-hour session gave him a new appreciation of what is demanded of the players’ bodies and mental strength.

“Once you’ve got the full session and you’ve got the total context, you understand how hard they really work,” he said.

“It was really insightful.”

Rhys Mathieson, Jarrod Berry, Corey Lyons and Cam Rayner were just some of the few who stood out, but not because they were at the front of the pack.

“Rhys Mathieson’s quite inquisitive,” he said.

“He wanted my insight on running.

“Jarrod Berry’s really tough, mentally tough as well as physically tough.

“Corey Lyons I was really impressed with. He doesn’t back off at any stage.”

For Rayner, it was his attitude towards the session.

“While it’s not his forte running, his willingness to embrace it and try and improve.”

Whiting chats with GM of Football David Noble during the morning's session.